By Juan Pedro Tomás

A total of 180 operators in 72 countries had already launched one or more 3GPP-compliant 5G services as of the end of September, according to the latest update from the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA).

Also, 465 operators in 139 countries were investing in 5G, including trials, acquisition of licenses, planning, network deployment and launches, GSA said.

GSA also said that 89 operators are identified as investing in 5G Standalone for public networks, including those evaluating/testing, piloting, planning, deploying as well as those that have launched 5G SA networks.

The entity also highlighted that 369 operators are investing in one or more LTE-Advanced technologies, with 336 networks identified as launched, while 217 operators are investing in LTE- Advanced Pro technologies.

In its study, the GSA estimated the number of companies deploying or holding licenses for private networks based on LTE or 5G reached almost 400 compared with 370 in early August.

The GSA also confirmed that the number of announced 5G devices reached 1,060, representing an increase of 21.4 per cent in the last quarter alone. Among those 66.4 per cent are commercially available.

The report reveals that 158 vendors have now announced available or forthcoming 5G devices across 22 different form factors. Devices recorded by GSA include over 500 5G phones and 188 FWA CPE devices. Among the 1,060 announced 5G devices, 724 of them support C-Band band n78.

The report also details that by the end of September 2021 GSA had identified:

-22 announced form factors.

-158 vendors who had announced available or forthcoming 5G devices.

-1,060 announced devices (including regional variants, but excluding operator-branded devices that are essentially rebadged versions of other phones), including 704 that are understood to be commercially available.

The body noted that these identified devices include:

-523 phones, at least 459 of which are now commercially available.

-188 FWA CPE devices (indoor and outdoor), at least of which 89 are now commercially available.

-138 modules.

-70 industrial/enterprise routers/gateways/modems.

-46 battery operated hotspots.

-23 tablets.

-19 laptops

-11 in-vehicle routers/modems/hotspots.

-8 USB terminals/‌dongles/‌modems.

-34 other devices (including drones, head-mounted displays, robots, TVs, cameras, femtocells/‌small cells, repeaters, vehicle OBUs, a snap-on dongle/‌‌adapter, a switch, a vending machine and an encoder).

-588 announced devices with declared support for 5G standalone in sub-6 GHz bands, 410 of which are commercially available.

In a separate report, GSA said that 139 operators around the world have deployed or launched NB-IoT or LTE-M networks in 64 countries.

The study showed that 165 operators globally are actively investing in NB-IoT technology, of which 123 have deployed or commercially launched NB-IoT networks.

GSA also noted that 74 operators are actively investing in LTE-M technology, of which 55 have deployed/commercially launched LTE-M networks.